Report Says USDA Discriminates Based On Race, Sex

Law360, New York (May 11, 2011, 8:23 PM EDT) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is plagued by agencywide racial and gender discrimination in its programs, despite more than a decade of efforts to combat its civil rights problems, Jackson Lewis LLP said in a government-contracted report released Wednesday.

A pool of community groups representing minority farmers and ranchers reported widespread discrimination and neglect in interviews with the firm’s corporate diversity counseling unit, while a vast majority of USDA employees interviewed said they didn’t believe the agency’s practices were discriminatory, according to the report.